Judging the annual Canadian Culinary Championships is an exciting honour for me. But as anyone in the food or restaurant world can probably well imagine, after 48 hours of judging food and wine all I want is a beer. So yeah, I’m positively thrilled about the coming of Gold Medal Pints. It’s a new competition within the competition that focuses solely on the best craft beers in Canada. I won’t be judging it (that’s up to GMP National Beer Advisor, Stephen Beaumont), but I’ll definitely be finding out where the beer is being kept and totally plan on liberating some!

I’ve included the complete press release on the new competition below. Congratulations and best of luck to Four Winds and Dageraad, the two BC breweries that have cracked the finals. I look forward to sipping them up in Kelowna very soon!

Gold Medal Plates was thrilled to introduce Gold Medal Pints, an invitational beer competition highlighting the very best in Canadian lagers and ales. The inaugural edition of Gold Medal Pints saw local breweries hand-selected by international beer authority and GMP National Beer Advisor, Stephen Beaumont, working in consultation with a crack cross-Canada team of local beer experts. These breweries were invited to pour a beer at their local Gold Medal Plates event and also enter that same beer into a nation-wide competition to determine the Gold, Silver and Bronze medal beers for Canada.

In total, five beers were poured in the distinct Gold Medal Pints area of each city’s Gold Medal Plates event, with guests invited to sample one, two or all five of the ales, lagers and mixed fermentation beers, if they wished. Those 50 top Canadian beers were entered into a single, nation-wide beer competition that saw a team of top independent experts, led by Stephen Beaumont, judge pilsners against stouts and IPAs against wheat beers in order to determine the five top beers that will be poured at the Canadian Culinary Championships in Kelowna on February 2. At the Mystery Wine Pairing Event, the names of the Gold, Silver and Bronze medal winning beers will be announced.

“We are very excited about this flavourful addition to Gold Medal Plates and look forward to evolving it into a true, Canada-wide beer competition in the coming years,” comments Stephen Beaumont, National Beer Advisor, Canadian Culinary Championships. “We will be featuring the five ‘Gold Medal Pints’ finalists, at the Canadian Culinary Championships on February 2 in Kelowna, BC; these been selected from 47 beers from across Canada by a panel of judges.”

On, February 2nd at the Mystery night, guests will have a chance to taste these beer finalists and the beers will be judged live during the event by THE Beer Guy and co-author of The World Atlas of Beer, Stephen Beaumont and other local beer aficionados and the bronze, silver and gold medal winning beers will be announced that night.

Out of 47 beers tasted the 5 finalists to be judged on the Friday night of the CCC are:

Great Western Original 16 (Saskatchewan)
Four Winds Nectarous (BC)
Dageraad Blonde (BC)
North Brewing Headline Milk Stout (NS)
Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel (Québec)

Chefs Competing at the 2018 Canadian Culinary Championships:

Alex Chen – Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, Vancouver, representing British Columbia
Shane Chartrand – SAGE, representing Edmonton
Blake Flann – BLAKE from Canmore, representing Calgary
David Vinoya – Wild Sage Kitchen & Bar, representing Regina
James McFarland – University of Saskatchewan, representing Saskatoon
Mike Robins – Sous Sol, representing Winnipeg
Lorenzo Loseto – George Restaurant, representing Toronto
Briana Kim – Café My House, representing Ottawa
Éric Gonzalez – L’Atelier Joël Robuchon, representing Montreal
Barry Mooney – Gio, representing Nova Scotia
Nick Jewczyk – The Fifth Ticket, representing St. John’s

Net proceeds from the Canadian Culinary Championships are provided to the Canadian Olympic Foundation which supports Olympic athletes and high performance programs. Since 2004, Gold Medal Plates has generated over 12 million for Canada’s Olympic athletes.

Tickets to the 2018 event are now on sale, attendees can choose from three event package options to include the Friday Mystery Wine Pairing Competition that will include Gold Medal Pints with five finalist beers being featured from across Canada, the Black Box Competition or the Saturday Grand Finale featuring musical entertainment by Neil Osborne of 54/40 and MC Olympic Gold Medalist in Ski Cross, Ashleigh McIvor. Anticipated to be another sold out event, tickets can be purchased online at www.goldmedalplates.com.

Gold Medal Plates – Gold Medal Plates is the ultimate celebration of Canadian excellence in food, wine, beer, athletic achievement and entertainment. Net proceeds from Gold Medal Plates are provided to the Canadian Olympic Foundation which supports Olympic athletes and high performance programs. Since 2004, Gold Medal Plates has generated over $12 million for Canada’s Olympic athletes. For more information, visit the Gold Medal Plates website: www.goldmedalplates.com.

Canadian Olympic Foundation –The Beneficiary of Toronto Gold Medal Plates: The Canadian Olympic Foundation is a national charitable organization that generates support to meet the technical, scientific, medical and coaching needs of Canada’s athletes across all Olympic sports. Proceeds from Gold Medal Plates are given to the Canadian Olympic Foundation to support high performance programs such as Own the Podium. To learn more about the Foundation and the programs it funds, please visit www.olympicfoundation.ca.